Senate Moves Forward on Funding ObamaCare

On Friday, the Senate voted 79-19 to invoke cloture and end debate on the House-passed Continuing Resolution. The vote paves the way for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to offer an amendment to restore funding for ObamaCare. Funding for the health care law had been removed in the House resolution that would have extended government spending authority.

Sen. Ted Cruz had described the cloture vote as “the fight” on ObamaCare funding.

Following the cloture vote, the Senate, as Cruz predicted, voted on party lines to restore funding for ObamaCare and grant final passage to the CR. The vote on both was 54-44, with Sens. Hatch and Flake unable to vote. All Democrats up for reelection in 2014 supported restoring ObamaCare funding.

The Senate will recess for the weekend and return on Monday, the day government spending authority expires.

The House will consider the new Senate CR on Saturday. If no agreement is reached on extending the government’s spending authority, most of the federal government will shut down on Tuesday.